Shank 2 is the game I wanted to play on the Super Nintendo when I was 10 years old. It fits right in with that era of gaming, when side-scrolling was at its peak and all a developer had to do was put a cool protagonist in and sprinkle it with some interesting levels and enemies. The only things these games were really missing were a lot of blood. The golden age of side scrolling ended with the introduction of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, but the genre has not been forgotten. Klei Entertainment played it safe with this sequel to 2010’s Shank, not straying too far from traditional side-scrolling gameplay, while updating the graphic violence to fit in with the 21st century of gaming. The story in Shank 2 is as much blockbuster as it is lackluster. Not that this is a bad thing; it obviously wasn’t a major concern for the developers.
Shank 2 is about pumping up the action, pumping out the macho one-liners, and weeding out anything that slows down the shanking. Shank’s loved one has been kidnapped by the rebellion, a group of rebels that fought the cartel only to take over their business. Shank spews out a few ultra-masculine one-liners through the course of the game, one in which the actor can be heard holding back laughter through the delivery. So the story sucks, but it’s all in good fun. The action, blood, and violence are what people are going to be playing this game for and there is nothing wrong with that. Shank’s animations are incredibly fluid, and transitioning between multiple weapons or attacks are slick. There aren’t any attacks or moves that delay the action and any shank links perfectly to the next attack. This keeps the game fast-paced and flowing as players shank, shoot, chainsaw, and beat their way through enemies. Shank has a variety of weapons in his arsenal, including grenades, machetes, Molotov cocktails, mines, chainsaws, pistols, shotguns, throwing knives, and there are also level specific weapons which include, bats, spears, axes, fish, boat motors, gun turrets, etc. Using the different weapons adds a good amount of replay value to the game, as players find out different ways to kill rebels with various weapons.
The level design is basic, but it works. Players will encounter mini-bosses and bosses at the middle and end of each level. Players can use the level’s architecture in order to effectively defeat these bosses. This is done simply enough by dropping boats on enemies or by roasting bosses using gas pipelines using a flip of a switch. Other than that, the levels are basic platform architecture. Players will jump from platform to platform, killing enemies, and there isn’t much to it besides that. Players can also rescue hostages and find intel throughout the levels, but this is about all there is to it. The shanking is fun and the variety of enemy deaths is extremely satisfying, but at the end of the day, the gameplay has me craving for more. The bloodshed seems novelty when attached to the simple gameplay. The campaign is 8 levels long and will take between 4-6 hours to complete on Normal Difficulty. Players that want to find all the intel items and hostages will get more bang for their buck, and there is also a Hard difficulty that will add hours to the play-through time. When players and done with the campaign, there is also a Survival Mode that supports both local and online co-op.
The Survival Mode throws increasingly difficult waves of enemies at players on three different levels. As the waves become harder, players will earn money to buy items to help them in their fight against the rebels. Players can purchases tequila as a health power-up (Shank is all man. When he drinks tequila, he leaves enemies on the ground. When I drink tequila, I leave chunks on the floor.) Players can also purchase war pigs, decoys, mini-guns and more to fight off the enemy waves. The Survival Mode is surprisingly difficult and players will have a fun time playing through it with friends. Shank 2 is a bloody good time. Its gameplay is familiar, but adds a flair of carnage not typically associated with the side-scroller genre. The violence is much appreciated, although the effect wears off after a couple play-throughs. The Survival Mode is a good substitution for when gamers get bored with the campaign and it is even better with a friend. Players looking for a side-scrolling game proud and unapologetic for its blunt machismo will get a kick out of Shank 2 and is priced fairly at 800 Microsoft Points.
